If you own a business that sells greeting cards, than you know just how much money there is to be made with greeting card stands.  Greeting cards are a great source of income and provide a very hefty margin.  Being able to have several greeting card stands that will be attractive and functional will drive a solid increase in square foot dollars.

  Here are some ways to find these card stands and some other tips to finding these very high profitable displays.

Greeting card stands can be made of wood, plastic or metal.  Many greeting card suppliers will provide you with a rack based on your agreement. It’s always a good idea to negotiate first with your supplier prior to agreeing to sell their cards.  Now, if you decide go this route and have the supplier provide you with card spinners, a gift card display stand, or any other type of greeting card stands—you will be loaned the rack and will have limitations to what you can do with it.  If and when you decide to switch suppliers the racks will need to be pulled and given back to the supplier. Hallmark is notorious for loaning racks, but you are only limited to displaying there cards.  This reason alone is why I choose to buy all my own racks.  With owning your own greeting card stands you will have the flexibility to place any cards that you would like.  Not only being limited to greeting cards, but you can use them for post cards, brochures and other literature.

EBay and store liquidations are a terrific source for finding a variety of cheap card stands on sale. There are also several other greeting card stand manufactures online that you will be able to find. These manufactures will build displays based upon your unique situation.  This is optimal for maximizing space and sales.  Having a greeting card rack that is attracting will drive those impulse sales.   IVARS and display warehouse are two sources that I have used in the past, but I prefer to have all my displays made locally.  If you are ordering greeting card racks online, be sure to have your dimensions precise.  I would recommend cutting out a floor footprint with construction paper that represents the size of the space you want the rack to fit in.   This way you can send the company the footprint and they can build the rack to those parameters and dimensions you choose.

A couple quick facts about greeting cards:

• 80% of the people who buy greeting cards are women.  This is a very important fact because having your greeting card stands built to target women will be more beneficial to driving volume.
• Christmas and Birthdays cards are the two most purchased cards, but other holidays such as Mothers Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Easter will represent the other majority of your inventory.
• Americans will purchase over 6.5 billion greeting cards this year alone.
• The average person will receive over 15 cards in a 12 month span.
• Despite the advent of the internet, text messaging and email many people still prefer to purchase greeting cards as a form communication on special occasions.

Margins on greeting cards varies, so it will be important to do the math to just as what type of racks and how many you will want in your place of business.   I will not be specific on what my margins are, but margin north of 150% is not unusual. But, main manufactures such as Hallmark, Humor and American Greetings will provide lower margins than some of the lesser name card companies. But, it should be noted that these brand name cards tend to sell more. I have also found that seasonal gift cards do better than standard holiday greeting cards. Post card greeting cards are a must if you’re targeting tourists.

With over 3,000 greeting card publishers at your disposal it’s imperative to find a good working relationship with one. Greeting cards are perfect for driving incremental dollars in your place of business, but having attractive greeting card stands will deliver the best results.

A couple posts I ago I explained the importance of Eco-friendly greeting card stands and how much they can impact your business – if you have the right clientele.I received several requests to show some examples of some. To my surprise…I found these in a local car wash. Yes, that’s right a car wash had recyclable greeting cards. Not only that they were there, but the rack looked like it was turning over. Now I will say that the traffic at this location is steady so they are blessed with being able to get these racks in front of a lot of eyes. And if you think about it…what else do you do when your waiting for your car to get washed? Why not buy someone a greeting card!

That just goes to show the impact of being green and that I don’t have a clue about greeting card placements! OK, maybe I still do, but to see these placed in a location like this tells me that’s a green light to order some in and target those larger margin greeting cards.

The two shown greeting card racks shown are both by the same supplier – Mother Earth. Their slogan is “Made With Mother Earth In Mind”. Now in some of my further research because I know I will receive some emails on how to acquire these stands. I asked the lady at the front desk on who restocks the cards and she stated that a local vendor comes in and merchandises the racks. I left her my name and number and once I fined out how to obtain these racks…I will post it.